Tape punching machine



Feb. 16, 1965 R. WESTERFIELD TAPE PUNCHING MACHINE 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 21 1962 &

wk W 0 N N NR a m a 722i 090 o 00 e o u o o o o 0o 0 o n o o o 0 0o 0 o o o o h u w\ I! x E m m a, my a m WM. m 1 m 4 0 Feb. 16, 1965 R. L. WESTERFIELD 3,169,434

TAPE PUNCHING MACHINE Filed May 21, 1962 5 SheetsSheet 2 yaw Arm/way 1965 R. 1.. WESTERFIELD 3,169,434

TAPE PUNCHING MACHINE Filed May 21, 1962 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Aim/Way.

United States Patent 3,169,434 TAPE PUNCHENG MACHINE Raymond L. Westerfield, 2645 High St., Topeka, Kans. Filed May 21, 1262, Ser. No. 196,277 8 Claims. (Cl. 83-560) This invention relates to new and useful improvements in machines for punching tapes for use in animated electrical advertising signs, the general operation being that as said tape is caused to travel between electrical brushes, said brushes will make contact through patterns of openings punched in the tape to cause illumination of electric lamps in a corresponding pattern in a remote bank of electric lamps, whereby to form a display sign.

The principal object of the present invention is the provision of a tape punching machine of the character described having novel means providing for a high degree of accuracy in the placement of the punched openings in the tape, since in devices of this type the precise location of the openings relative to the brushes or other circuit completing devices is highly critical.

Another object of the present invention is the provision of a tape punching machine of the character described wherein a master tape with punched openings or markings is used as a general visual guide for correctly placing the punched openings in the sign tape to be punched, but wherein the precise placement of .the punched openings is governed and controlled with mechanical precision by the machine itself, whereby to eliminate human error in aligning the openings. Also, although the master tape serves as a general visual guide, no portion of the actual guide mechanism of the machine ever actually contacts said master tape. This eliminates wear and deterioration of the master tape, and provides longer life for the machine.

Other objects are simplicity and economy of construction, efficiency and dependability of operation, and general adaptability for usage wherever accurate relative location of punched openings in sheet material may be desired.

With these objects in view, as well as other objects which will appear in the course of the specification, reference will be had to the drawing, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a tape punching machine embodying the present invention,

FIG. 2 is a sectional View taken on line IIH of FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken on line'III-HI of FIG. 1,

FIG. 4 is an enlarged, fragmentary sectional view taken on line IVIV of FIG. 2, with parts left in elevation, and

FIG. 5 is an enlarged, fragmentary sectional view taken on line V-V of PEG. 1, with parts left in elevation.

Like reference numerals apply to similar parts throughout the several views, and the numeral 2 applies to a base or frame of box-like form open at the top, said base having a series of upwardly projecting posts 4 along its upper edges which support a horizontal planar platform 6 at their upper ends. Said platform overlies the base, except that the side edges thereof terminate inwardly from the side walls of base 2, as shown.

At the left side of the base, as viewed in FIG. 1, a horizontal shaft 8 is disposed outwardly from the contiguous side of platform 6, being rotatably mounted in bearings 10 carried by base 2, and being manually rotatable by means of knob 12 affixed to the forward end thereof. Mounted on said shaft are a pair of guide spools 14 and 16. Spool 14 is disposed adjacent the front of the base, and is freely rotatable on the shaft. Spool 16 is disposed adjacent the back of the base, and is fixed on the shaft. Similarly, a second horizontal shaft 18 is disposed adjacent the right side of the base as viewed in FIG. 1, parallel to shaft 8. Shaft 18 is supported r'otatably in bearings 26 aflixed to the base, is manually rotatable by means of a knob 22 affixed to the forward end thereof, and has a pair of guide spools 24 and 26.

Spool 24 is disposed adjacent the front of the base in alignment with spool 14, and is fixed on the shaft. Spool 26 is disposed adjacent the back of the base in alignment with spool 16, and is freely rotatable on the shaft. Trained about guide spools 14 and 24 is an endless master tape 28 of pliable material, the upper reach of said tape resting slidably on the top surface of platform 6, and its lower reach being disposed in base 2 below the platform. Said tape carries a series of letters 30 (as shown) or numerals or other desired characters, each character being formed by a series of circular marks imprinted onthe tape in the desired pattern. It will be noted that the marks forming the characters are arranged in regular rows, both longitudinally and transversely of the tape. In the particular master tape shown, the trans verse rows of marks are inclined angularly to the longitudinal extent of the tape, but this is optional.

The master tape, depending on the number of characters it may carry, may be longer than can be supported directly by spools 14 and 24-. To support this extra length, and to maintain the tape resonably taut, the lower reach of the tape may be trained about a plurality of idler rollers 32 supported rotatably by brackets 34 de pending from platform 6. Tape 28 may be advanced in either direction by turning spool 24 by means of knob 22.

In order to assure good traction between the tape and spool 24, a pressure roller 36 urges said tape against the spool. Said pressure roller is carried rotatably by a crank 38 pivoted in a post 40 fixed to base 2, and is urged against the tape by a spring 42. Turning knob 12 will not affect tape 28, since shaft 8 turns freely in spool 14.

The sign tape 44, or the tape to be punched, is fed from a roll 46 supported rotatably in base 2 by a bracket 48 depending from platform 6. From said roll,'tape 44 is trained about spool 26, passes over the upper surface of platform 6 in parallel relation to master tape 28, and is then passed around spool 16 and out of the machine. Tape 44 is advanced by turning spool 16 by means of knob 12, and to insure good traction between the spool and tape, a pressure roller 50 presses said tape firmly against the spool. Said pressure roller is supported rotatably by a crank 52 pivoted in a post 54 afiixed to base 2, and is urged against the tape by a spring 56. Turning knob 22 will not affect tape 44, since shaft 18 turns freely in spool 26. Since accurate punching of tape 44 as it passes over platform 6 depends in part on accurate spacing of the punches from the edges of the tape, and since as will presently appear this edge spacing would be inaccurate if the tape were permitted to move laterally relative to its direction of travel, a pair of guides 58 are fixed adjustably to the top of platform 6 by means of screws 60 (see FIG. 1). The tape passes between these guides, and is thereby accurately held in its line of travel. The sign tape is of course usually formed of electrical insulating material, to serve its purpose in the sign mechanism in which it is eventually employed.

The actual punch mechanism is carried on the top surface of platform 6 intermediate the sides thereof, This of movement of tapes 2S and 44. Said head is moved manually by means of a lever 68 pivoted to platform 6 at.

Sign tape 44 is trained through said slit. bar 120 has a hole 126 formed therethrough which acts 70, and a link 72 pivotally connected to lever 68 at 74 and to head 66 at 76. For reasonsIwhich will presently be discussed, it is desirable that meansbeprovided for 7 moving head. 66 accurately in steps corresponding to the I spacing between the transverse rows of marks 'forming characters- 30 on master tape 28, measured longitudinally of this tape. For this purpose, there is provided a detent mechanism best shown in FIG. 4 and comprising a detent ball-78 retained byguideway 62 and engageable success .sively in a series of sockets 86 formed in head 66, as said 1 said'tape.

1 of punched openings formed therein, said rows extending head ismoved in the guideway. Said detent ball is biased toward said sockets by a spring'82 adjustably tensioned by a screw 84 threaded in the guideway. The detent will.

of :course yield to permit movement of the. head by.

lever'68, but nevertheless serves as ameans for positioning the head very accurately at any of a series of predetermined positions.

Afiixed to the top of head is slidably mounted .a bar 88 which is disposed horizontally and parallel to the angle of inclination of the transverse rows of marks forming the characters 3%) on the master tape. Said bar slides longitudinally in guideway 86, and extendslboth forwardly and rearwardly therefrom, whereby tooverlap tapes 28 and 44 respectively. For reasons which willpresently be discussed, itis desir-v able that means be provided for moving bar'88 accurately 'in steps corresponding to the spacing betweenthe longitudinal rows of the marks forming characters 30 on the master tape, measured transversely of the tape; For this purpose, there is provided a detent mechanism best shown in FIG. 4 and comprising a detent ball 90 retained. in1guideway 86 and engageablesuccessively in a seriesof sockets 92; formed in bar 88, as said bar is 66 isia guideway 86in which 7' parallel to bar 33. Row 158 is spaced from die 118, in the direction of tape travel, a distance equal to the'desired spacing between lettersof the message to be punched inthe tape and row ldil is spaced from the die a dismoved in said guideway. Said detent ball is biased to- 1 ward said sockets by a spring 94 adjustably tensioned by a screw 96 threaded in the guideway. The bar is moved manually by an upright lever 98 pivoted at its lower end,

as at 1%, to a bracket102 affixed to guideway 86, and a link 104 pivoted atone end to said lever at 106, and pivoted at its opposite end, as at 108, to a standard 110 which is aflixed to the rearward end of bar 88. Detent 90 will of course yield to permit-movement of thebar by lever 98, but nevertheless serves as a means for 'positioning the bar very accurately Many of a' series of predetermined positions.

is a-depending stylus or pointer 114, the lower end of which is disposed closely adjacent, but out of contact tance equal to thedesired spacing between words of the.

message. Y 4

In use, master tape 28 is, first moved by turning knob 22 until the leftmost transverse row of marks forming the desired character on the tape isfdisposed beneath stylus114. Then by manipulation of lever 98 the stylus 'may be positioned successively over .each mark in that a transverse row of marks. 7 154 is depressed to actuate the die 118 to punch a hole in tape 44. When that transverse row of holes has been At each position, push button completed, lever 68 is manipulated to move head 66 to the right to position stylus 114 over the next transverse row of marks in the desired-character on tape 28, and

by manipulating'lever 93' the stylus is positioned over each mark in that row, pressing push button 154 at each' position. This is repeated until all the marks in the. entire character have been duplicated byjpunched openings in tape 44; During this entire process neither of the tapes' are moved. 7 Furthermore, stylus i14acts only as a rough guide, the final and accurate positioning of the die at each position being accomplished by detent balls 78 and 99'. This eliminates all human error and inaccuracies in the relative positoning of the holes representing each single letter or character, and is extremely ,important in that inaccuracy in this respect is very detrimental to the eflicient operation of the tape in the sign mechanism for which i-t is intended. Aftera letter or character is completed as described above, head 66 is movedto the left by lever 68, tape 44 is advanced to the left by turning knob 12 until the last-punched trans- Afiixed in the forward end of bar 88 by set screw 112' with, master tape 28. Rigidly affixed to the rearward end of bar188, directly above sign tape 44, -is a block 116 in which is slidably mounted for vertical movement 'a punch die 118. Afiixed. to' the. lower side of said block are apair of horizontal bars 120 and 122 which define a horizontal slit 124 therebetween, as best shown in FIG.

Upper verse row of holes in said tape is disposed directly beneath the row 158 of holes in guide plate 156, tape 28 is advanced in either direction by turning knob 22 until the leftmost row of transverse marks in the next desired character on tape 28 is disposed beneath stylus 114, and

the process repeated for the new letter orwotner character.

When an entireiword is completed, the resetting of the tapes as previously described in this paragraph is re peated, except that in advancing tape 44 thelast transverse row of holes in that tape is positioned beneath'r ow 1600f holes in guide plate 156. This provides the desired spacing between words' in the sign tape. The

, described visual procedurefor resetting tape 44 to proas'a guide for die 11%. Lower bar'122 acts as a ledger plate for the die, and has a hole 128 thereinfor receiving the die after. it has pierced the tape. j 7

Die 118 extends rabove block 116, and is connected at its upper end by pivoted link 130 to the central portion of a lever .132. One end of said lever is pivoted at 134' to an upstanding post 136 afiixed to block 116, and the other end-of the lever is pivoted at 138 tofthe upper end of a solenoid armature 140.1 The coil 142 is rigidly mounted on block 116, so that whenever said coil -is energized, armature 140 will be pulled downwardly, and

will act through lever 132 to force die 118 downwardly. to pierce tape 44 in slit 124. The die is normally biased to an upwardly retracted position by a compression spring 144 disposed about said die and urging it'up'wardly. As showndiagrammatically in FIGQZ, solenoid coil 142 is connected bywires 146 and 148 to electric line wires 150 and 152 through a pushbutton electric switch 154 which, for convenience, ismounted at the upper end of vide proper spacing between letters and words does admit some slight error in these spacings, as compared to the virtually absolute accuracy of spacing within single characters, but this is not considered detrimental in the finished tape. Also, the stylus does not ride on or' even contact the master tape at any time. This prevents wear and tear on the master tape which commonly occurs, for

example, when a stylus must'actually engage in punched openings in a master tape.

While I'have shown and described a specificembodiment of my invention, it will be readily apparent that 1 many minor changes of structure and operation could be made. without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined by the'scope of the appended claims.

' What I claim as new and desire to protectby Letters 'Patent is: j i

1. A tape punching machine comprising: .(ql ba (b) a master tape carried by said base, and having characters impninted thereon,

(c) a sign tape carried by said base,

(d) means for moving said tapes independently in parallel relation,

(e) a bar carried by said base above said tapes and being movable relative to said base both longitudinally and transversely relative to said tapes,

(1) a stylus carried by said bar adjacent said master tape and adapted to be moved in tracing relation to the characters imprinted thereon,

(g) a punch die carried by said bar in the same relation to said sign tape as sm'd stylus bears to said master tape, and being operable when actuated to punch a hole in said sign tape, and

(It) means for actuating said punch die.

2. A tape punching machine as recited in claim 1 with the addition of:

(a) means for releasably securing said bar selectively at any of a series of accurately spaced points in its movement longitudinally of said tapes, and

(b) means for releasably securing said bar selectively at any of a series of accurately spaced points in its movement transversely of said tapes.

3. A tape punching machine as recited in claim 1 Wherein each of the characters imprinted on said master tape are defined by a series of marks arranged in regularly spaced rows extending both longitudinally and transversely of said tape, and with the addition of:

(a) means for releasably securing said bar selectively at any of a series of accurately spaced points in its movement longitudinally of said tapes, the spacing of said points corresponding to the spacing between said transverse rows of marks on said master tape, and

(b) means for releasably securing said bar selectively at any of a series of accurately spaced points in its movement transversely of said tapes, the spacing between said points corresponding to the spacing between said longitudinal rows of marks on said master tape.

4. A tape punching machine comprising:

(a) a base,

(5) a master tape carried by said base, and having characters imprinted thereon,

(c) a sign tape carried by said base,

(0.) means for moving said tapes independently in parallel relation,

(e) a head carried by said base for movement longitudinally of said tapes,

(f) means for moving said head,

(g) a bar carried by said head for movement transversely of said tapes,

(h) means for'rnoving said bar,

(1') a stylus carried by said bar adjacent said master 5 tape and adapted by movement of said head and said bar to move in tracing relation to the characters imprinted thereon, and

(j) a punch die carried by said bar in the same relation to said sign tape as said stylus bears to said master tape, and operable to punch holes in said sign tape.

5. A tape punching machine as recited in claim 4 wherein each of the characters imprinted on said master tape are defined by a series of marks arranged in regularly spaced rows extending both longitudinally and transversely of said tape, and with the addition of:

(a) means for releasably indexing said head at any of a series of points in its movement longitudinally of said tapes, the spacing between said points corresponding to the spacing between said transverse rows of marks on said master tape, and

(b) means for releasably indexing said bar at any of a series of points in its movement transversely to said tapes, the spacing between said points corresponding to the spacing between said longitudinal rows of marks on said master tape.

6. A tape punching machine as recited in claim 5 wherein said indexing means comprise spring loaded detents.

7. A tape punching machine as recited in claim 5 wherein said means for moving said bar includes a manually operable lever, and wherein said punch die is provided with electrical operating means including an electric switch mounted on said lever.

8. A tape punching machine as recited in claim 5 with the addition of:

(a) a guide plate carried by said bar adjacent said punch die and overlying said sign tape, said guide plate having a plurality of rows of holes formed therethrough, said rows extending parallel to the direction of movement of said bar transversely to said tapes, and being spaced from said punch die, in a direction longitudinal of said tapes, at distances corresponding to various spacings between characters which may be desired in the sign tape.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 487,737 12/92 Hollerith 83561 1,145,167 7/15 Schmidt 83-560 2,177,783 10/39 Ross 23438 2,785,751 3/57 Jones 83-560 FOREIGN PATENTS 500,554 6/30 Germany. 528,946 11/40 Great Britain.

ANDREW R. JUHASZ, Primary Examiner. 

1. A TAPE PUNCHING MACHINE COMPRISING: (A) A BASE, (B) A MASTER TAPE CARRIED BY SAID BASE, AND HAVING CHARACTERS IMPRINTED THEREON, (C) A SIGN TAPE CARRIED BY SAID BASE, (D) MEANS FOR MOVING SAID TAPES INDEPENDENTLY IN PARALLEL RELATION, (E) A BAR CARRIED BY SAID BASE ABOVE SAID TAPES AND BEING MOVABLE RELATIVE TO SAID BASE BOTH LONGITUDINALLY AND TRANSVERSELY RELATIVE TO SAID TAPES, (F) A STYLUS CARRIED BY SAID BAR ADJACENT SAID MASTER TAPE AND ADAPTED TO BE MOVED IN TRACING RELATION TO THE CHARACTERS IMPRINTED THEREON, (G) A PUNCH DIE CARRIED BY SAID BAR IN THE SAME RELATION TO SAID SIGN TAPE AS SAID STYLUS BEARS TO SAID MASTER 